US President Barack Obama today declared an end to over seven-year-old "Operation Iraqi Freedom" which overthrew the then dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, as he shifted focus to Af-Pak region, where the Al-Qaeda leadership "remains anchored".
Terming the end of combat operations in Iraq as a "remarkable chapter in the history of the US and Iraq", Obama said it was time to turn the page and that his most urgent task now was to restore the US economy and put millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work.
"Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office," he said in his live televised prime-time speech from his refurbished Oval office.
Obama, who as a Democrat Senator opposed the Iraq war, said he had announced in February last a plan that "would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq's Security Forces and support its government and people."
"That is what we have done," he said.
The US has removed nearly 100,000 US troops from Iraq. It has closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis and has moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq, he said.
Obama, the Commander-in-Chief of US forces, said ending the war is not only in Iraq's interest – it is in America's own.
"The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people. We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home," the President said.
He said a transitional force of US troops will remain in Iraq with a different mission: advising and assisting Iraq's Security Forces, supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counter-terrorism missions, and protecting our civilians.
"Consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all US troops will leave by the end of next year," the President said.
More than 4,400 US military personnel died and tens of thousands more Americans wounded since March 2003 when the US forces invaded Iraq to overthrow the regime led by Hussein for allegedly possessing "weapons of mass destruction."
Hussein was hanged in 2006 for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
Because of the drawdown in Iraq, Obama said, the US will now be able to apply the resources necessary to go on an offensive in Afghanistan.
"As we speak, Al-Qaeda continues to plot against us, and its leadership remains anchored in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda, while preventing Afghanistan from again serving as a base for terrorists," the President said.
